While there are a variety of infant seats which are or have been available from various manufacturers, the vast majority can be classified into two general styles. One style of seat is of molded plastic, and often includes a padded liner structure which enables a rocking motion of the seat in use, and carrying features. One such molded plastic seat is marketed by Century Products Company of Macedonia, Ohio under the trademark Kanga-Rocka-Roo. Other examples of this seat style can be seen in R. Wise U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,175 and Des. No. 289,564 which issued to R. Wise. Some of these products also serve double duty as car seats for infants. While the molded plastic style seats perform many of their functions well, they are generally bulky, relatively heavy, and relatively expensive. While there is at least one molded plastic infant seat on the market which can be folded in half when not in use, these products remain relatively heavy, cumbersome, expensive, and too large for easy transportation and/or storage.
The other common type of infant seat available in the industry generally comprises a relatively heavy gauge wire frame having a cloth or similar material seat stretched over that frame. This general type of infant seat is also known as a "bouncer", as the wire frames of these devices often provide limited bounce when the baby moves therewithin. While these bouncer seats tend to provide a more flexible support for the infant, they are generally not foldable, and generally require dismantling for storage and/or transportation. These devices are also relatively expensive. Examples of the wire frame type seats are illustrated and described in W. Lockett III et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,786 and Des. No. 282,791 which issued to W. Lockett III et al.
Other bouncer-type products are also available which substitute plastic or tubular frame parts for the heavy wire devices. Generally, however, these products do not collapse to a relatively compact package for storage and transportation, and their costs remain relatively high.
The problems of size and bulk of chair structures have been addressed in other industries such as illustrated in the folding chaise and cot of D. Wolberg U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,176. The Wolberg chaise is directed to addressing the problems of bulk in folding furniture, and features a foldable netting attached across lateral members of a rectangular frame which includes a plurality of foldable legs located at the head and foot of the frame. The Wolberg folding chaise, however, requires a relatively complex and cumbersome combination of hingedly connected parts and folding joints.
A similar collapsible chair is shown in H. Whitehead U.S. Pat. No. 379,670. Particularly, the Whitehead chair incorporates a pair of rectangular frame sections pivotally attached, and having a support member which locates one frame member relative to the other in various seating positions. The Whitehead device also includes cross-members which can be folded inwardly to reduce the lateral dimension of the chair to result in the collapsed condition shown in FIG. 4 of this patent. The Whitehead arrangement again relies on relatively complex interactions of a plurality of inner connected support members, and does not substantially reduce its length upon folding.
Other foldable and collapsible chair structures are shown in Friesner U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,096,169, Beeskow U.S. Pat. No. 2,006,823, Moss U.S. Pat. No. 2,690,792, and Tripodi, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,476. These foldable structures are collapsible in a vertical direction, and illustrate examples of relatively common folding chairs which have been available in the industry for years. While these chairs all include a portion formed of flexible material as the actual seat of the chair, such material is merely draped or hung on the rigid structure, which includes relatively complex interacting parts which in turn make the structures bulky, heavy, and expensive. Chassaignac U.S. Pat. No. 3,348,882 illustrates a chair which can be dismantled for transportation and storage, and which similarly includes relatively complex (and spring-loaded) interacting parts.
Consequently, it can be seen that heretofore there has not been available a relatively simple portable infant seat which can be substantially collapsed in vertical, longitudinal, and transverse dimensions into a substantially compact closed condition for storage and transportation. Moreover, folding structures available previously have required relatively complex and bulky mechanisms which would interfere with the low cost, low weight, and general convenience of an infant seat designed for quick and easy portability, with safety and reliability in mind.